10.21.2011

Modern Flatiron Scratchbuild - Part 2

I made good progress earlier this week, but things slowed down as I had to apply coats of primer and surface color with a spray can to many of the materials.

As you can see in the above photo, I applied my transparency sheets (printed on a laser printer) to the acrylic, and then glued my strips of styrene (already painted) on top of that.
Below you can see a more finished look, along with the ground floor, to get an idea of how its going to look:

I also did a little work on preparing the interior details for the lobby - mainly the 'back wall' where the elevator banks would be. I decided to do something a bit different and used some 'rock face' material for the wall to give it a bit of architectural texture!

I referenced waiting for paint to dry above, and the below photo of the 'back wall' illustrates what I was doing. The material is clear acrylic, so I need to spray it with a coat or two of primer to ensure its opaque, then apply the surface color. An area was masked out for the application of more windows that will appear above the rooftops of the adjacent buildings.

While waiting for paint to dry, there is plenty to do, so I also soldered the leads onto the LED strips that I'll be using for the interior lighting.

Next I believe will be additional detailing on the floors, and then installation of the floors and the lighting. I also need to figure out the wiring for the building top logo. After that, I should be pretty close to gluing it all together and seeing what I've got! Stay tuned!

4 comments:

Hi Jerry what glue are you using to attach the styrene strips and the transparencies to the acrylic? I know you use Weld-on / Scigrip now, but it seems difficult to get anything of that nature here in NZ. And do you have any problems with the transparent paper lifting from the acrylic?

For this building I used Walther's Goo Glue (there may be similar glues out there as well). It has to be applied VERY carefully as it will have 'strings' of glue between where you apply it and the tip of the glue container! These can easily get on the plastic and mess it up! If you don't have Goo Glue, which is more of an adhesive type glue than regular plastic cement. Regular plastic cement 'dissolves' the plastic to melt two pieces together to create a bond, and that is not the action you want here. There may be something similar at your local hardware goods store, I usually check out different types of glues when I can find them! One of the brands I found (which is now difficult to find!) was a glue called 'welder'

Now to get the transparent sheets to adhere to the acrylic, that is also tricky. White glue can be used, but I usually go with something like Pastruct's Weld Cement (a very thin almost watery glue applied with a small brush...it needs to be applied quickly because it evaporates fast!).

About Me

I'm into N Scale to have fun. Growing up my Dad was really big into HO (U.S.A. of course, mostly Western U.S. roads like Great Northern, Milwaukee Road, Northern Pacific, etc...) and he built me a small N Scale layout which I enjoyed as a small boy. Of the various trains I had at the time, the brand 'Minitrix' stuck in my head. As the years passed, N Scale was forgotten as new interests took my time.
As a new parent, I got back into model trains through O Gauge (Lionel and MTH). However, the cost of this scale, and the space needed for the sort of layout I wanted, made it a very frustrating hobby. Then one day at a hobby shop in California, I came across the Trix 2003 catalog; Inside this catalog were beautiful models of trains across Europe shown on beautiful layouts - and I was converted! It took a few years, but most of the O Gauge was sold (or stored) and I used the funds to start my new fantasy in N Scale.
Soon, I also discovered the amazing trains of Japan in N Scale, and begin my quest to build an interesting urban layout in a complete fantasy setting where the great trains of the world can run side by side!